Doctors in the Age of Social Media

See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor

ByAnas Younes, MD

Recently, a 26-year-old woman from Georgia came to my clinic to discuss her treatment options for her relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma. At the end of the visit, she said, “and by the way, I follow you on Twitter.” The clinic nurse and the medical oncology fellow were a bit surprised. Last week, another new patient came for a second opinion to discuss clinical trials for his refractory diffuse large cell lymphoma. His wife spoke with admiration of how they heard about me through social media, and how they became followers of my tweets (@DrAnasYounes) and medical posts on my facebook page (https://www.facebook. com/pages/Anas-Younes-MD). It is now well established that more than 60% of Americans get their health information online. Patients and their families read about their disease, learn about disease prognosis and standard treatment, search for physician, and research clinical trials. Patients and caregivers also exchange information on disease-related experiences, including treatment outcome, with others using a variety of social media outlets.

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